Tobacco Style Blog News.

Maine’s teen smoking rate has rebounded after a dramatic 10-year decline, and no one is sure why.
State officials hope to put a quick end to the rebound, however, with the help of a federally funded crackdown on illegal cigarette sales and new regulations on tobacco companies.

“We’ve got more work to do,” said John Archard, tobacco enforcement coordinator for the Maine Attorney General’s Office. Last week, Maine became one of the first states to receive a one-year, $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The money will help expand Archard’s inspections and enforcement division to make sure Maine’s retail stores are not selling to customers under the age of 18. Maine’s beefed-up inspection staff also will be checking to make sure tobacco companies comply with a list of federal marketing and labeling limits that take effect Tuesday.
Continue reading ‘Smoking rates rise again for teenagers’

While U.S. tobacco contracting declined this year, Pittsylvania County farmers overall seem stable.

“There’s no doubt the amount contracted for has been reduced,” said D. Stanley Duffer, marketing specialist with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the number of acres of flue-cured tobacco planted in Virginia this year is 16,000 — down from 17,500 estimated acres in 2009. That’s a 9 percent decline.

Overall in the United States, the crop estimates were 224,000 acres in 2009 and 207,000 acres this year — an 8 percent decline for flue-cured tobacco.

It’s hard to tell how individual growers fared. Some don’t have a contract at all compared to last year, while others may have seen a reduction or no cutback in the amount of tobacco contracted, Duffer said.

The decline in planted acres of flue-cured tobacco follows domestic cigarette consumption, which declined 8 percent from 2008 to 2009. The decline stems from increasing federal and state taxes on cigarettes and restrictions, such as North Carolina and Virginia recently implemented restaurant smoking bans, Duffer added.

Pittsylvania County is on par with the past few years in the amount of flue-cured tobacco planted, which hovers around the 5,000-acre mark, said Stephen Barts, Pittsylvania County Extension Agent.

The majority of those crops are contracted, he said. While individual producers may have lost volume with one company, they were able to gain back that contracted amount with another company.

“We as a region on a per acreage basis are going to be fairly stable,” Barts said. “We may see a bit of a increase, we’ll see.”

Barts attributes it to the experience of local farmers and the region’s soil type and climate that produce a desired tobacco leaf, which is put in the mix of the cigarette tobacco blend.

The opening of two more tobacco receiving stations in Danville this year may have helped local farmers. Philip Morris USA continues having a receiving station in Danville.

The JTI Leaf Services LLC facility in Riverview Industrial Park will begin receiving tobacco this fall. JTI Leaf Services in Danville is Japan Tobacco International’s regional headquarters for leaf procurement. JTI is a division of Japan Tobacco Inc. — the world’s third largest tobacco company.

The U.S. Tobacco Cooperative, based in Raleigh, N.C, will use the former Dimon facility on Kentuck Road as a receiving station or “marketing center” this year, said Mike Parker, manager of public and member relations. The cooperative had been using the facility as a green storage area and consolidated with a centralized location in Danville after closing marketing centers in South Hill and Rural Hall, N.C.

The cooperative, which is farmer-owned and run by elected board members, last operated a receiving station in Danville in 2007 at the old Motley’s Warehouse off Piney Forest Road.

The 940-member cooperative, which contracts with growers from northern Florida to southern Virginia, reduced flue-cured tobacco contracting by 10 percent this year, Parker said. That’s because of customer requirements and also ending contracts with the growers of inferior-quality leaf.

The cooperative’s largest customer is China, with others in Europe and Southeast Asia.

Parker, a Danville native, said growers in Pittsylvania County are likely holding their own because they are known to grow top-quality tobacco.

“In today’s world, whether it be in the tobacco industry or anything, it’s quality that drives this industry,” Parker said.

Clarence Emerson of Emerson Road Farms in Dry Fork grows about 100 acres of tobacco, which he will sell to Bailey’s Cigarettes in Clarksville. His contracts have remained steady. He also attributes the stability of local contracting to a flavor and smoking characteristic niche of the region’s tobacco.

“This old red land right here grows quality tobacco,” he said.

Emerson said having more receiving stations in Danville this year gives growers more options. They also don’t have to haul the crop as far.

Johnny Angell, who farms 50 acres of flue-cured and 30 acres of burley in Penhook, saw a slight increase in his contracted amount this year. He agreed tobacco companies want to keep the Old Belt tobacco in the mix. The region’s growers have been growing it longer than anybody else, he added.

Yet, the tobacco industry is still adapting to various changes and waits to see what regulations will come down from the Food and Drug Administration. Congress gave the FDA power to regulate tobacco in 2009.

Additionally, tobacco companies are competing in an international market and with countries like Brazil, Parker said. A weak dollar, which can fluctuate from season to season, can be good for exports. Brazil’s currency is strengthening, so that will make the country’s tobacco cost about the same as U.S. tobacco, he added.

“I think the tobacco industry, you might see a slight change in products being introduced. We’ll certainly be keeping an eye on what FDA regulations will be,” Parker said “But yes, for the growers, they’ve got a strong future. In today’s recessionary times, that’s a positive.”

Regardless of whether or not you smoke, there’s no denying that the ubiquitous flip-top cigarette pack is easily one of the best examples of packaging design – ever. The folks at Tank Magazine have taken that well-known design and blended it with classic literature. The London-based company’s TankBooks is a cleverly-designed, super-cool series of books designed to mimic cigarette packs – the same size, packaged in flip-top cartons with silver foil wrapping and sealed in cellophane.

Each story is complete and unabridged – with a type size that’s easy to read. Titles ($14 each) include Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” Ernest Hemingway’s “The Undefeated” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and Rudyard Kipling’s “The Man who would be King.” TankBooks have cool, gift idea written all over it; ‘for people on the move, lovers of literature and connoisseurs of design,” the company states. “Try one and you’ll be hooked!”

KATHMANDU, May 31, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) — Around 6 million people die of tobacco related ailment across the world every year and the number will reach 10 million by 2030, it was revealed at a program organized by Nepal Cancer Relief Society in the capital Kathmandu on the occasion of the World No Tobacco Day on Monday.

Speaking at the program, Health Minister Uma Kanta Chaudhary said the government will soon introduce a bill to control the ” epidemic of tobacco”.

“Once the bill becomes the law, the stakeholders should do the needful to implement it,” he said.

According to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) report, 49 percent of male and 29 percent of female are smokers in Nepal. Around 11,000 people die every day around the world due to tobacco.

With the theme “gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women”, this year’s World No Tobacco Day was observed in Nepal and the world over to draw particular attention to the harmful effects of tobacco marketing toward women and girls and highlight the need for the nearly 170 parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship in accordance with laws.

(Source: iStockAnalyst )

An Indonesian tobacco company will no longer sponsor Kelly Clarkson’s upcoming concert in Jakarta following objections from anti-tobacco groups and fans, according to The Associated Press.

Check out photos of Kelly Clarkson

Tobacco company PT Djarum had prominently featured their L.A. Lights brand of cigarettes in print, online and TV ads for Clarkson’s April 29 concert, but promoter Adrie Subono of Java Musikindo said Thursday that the company has reached a “final agreement” to cancel the sponsorship.

He said it would take, at most, two days to pull all the ads across the platforms.

See Kelly Clarkson’s tobacco company-sponsored ads in Indonesia

Clarkson wrote on her blog Wednesday that she was surprised by the sponsorship and was not advocating smoking.

“Unfortunately, my only option at this point was to cancel the show in order to stop the sponsorship. However, I can’t justify penalizing my fans for someone else’s oversight,” she wrote, suggesting the sponsorship could not be dropped.

Earlier this week, Clarkson fans set up a website asking the inaugural American Idol champ to remove the sponsorship, saying that she is sending the wrong message to children about smoking. Anti-tobacco organizations, including Indonesian National Commission on Child Protection, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance, also issued a statement urging her to do the same.

Kelly Clarkson responds to criticism about tobacco company sponsorship

“If Kelly Clarkson goes ahead with this concert, she is choosing to be a spokesperson for the tobacco industry and helping them to market cigarettes to children,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “If she rejects tobacco industry sponsorship, she can send a powerful message to children in Indonesia and around the world that they, too, should reject the tobacco industry’s deadly products and marketing.”

“I think the hardest part of situations like this is getting personally attacked for something I was completely unaware of and being used as some kind of political pawn,” Clarkson wrote.

Magazine readers no longer have to squint to see the health warning on ads for smokeless tobacco products.

Big, bold health warnings, which stem from last year’s landmark tobacco law, have begun showing up in magazines this month. The new rules requiring more prominent health warnings on advertising for smokeless tobacco products officially go into effect June 22 and kick in a year later for cigarette ads.

Previously, the warning on smokeless tobacco ads appeared in a small circle in the corner of the ad. Now the bold warning must fill 20 percent of the advertising space.

“A huge improvement,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington interest group. “You can’t miss the new warnings, whereas the old warnings disappeared into the ad and were virtually invisible.”

Research has shown smokeless tobacco products, used by nearly 3 percent of Americans, appeal particularly to young men, especially those in rural areas and the southeast. Smokeless tobacco causes nicotine addiction and cancers of the lip, tongue, cheek, gum and mouth. Research has also shown that larger warning statements discourage users. The new warnings mark the first such change since 1986.

The new law requires a rotating set of larger warnings, including, “Warning: This product is not a safe alternative to cigarettes,” “”Warning: This product can cause mouth cancer,” and “Warning: This product can cause gum disease and tooth loss.” Earlier ads required the same statements but in smaller type. The new law also adds a fourth warning to the rotation: “Warning: Smokeless tobacco is addictive.”

Not everyone thinks the larger warnings will make much difference, because the warning is in white print on a black background.

“It’s the type of thing that consumers are still most likely to ignore in an ad,” said Margaret A. Morrison, professor at the University of Tennessee who has published research on tobacco advertising in youth-oriented magazines. “If you look at the totality of the ad, the blue, the soothing stuff, is still likely to attract your eye. This one, even though it’s bigger, it’s not necessarily better.”

Gregory N. Connolly, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, said that warnings are still too weak, even at the larger size. The bigger concern is the color ad above the warning, promoting the smokeless product as a way to keep smoking, Dr. Connolly said. The ad urges consumers to “Boldly go everywhere,” a reference to using the tobacco product at places and times where smoking is prohibited.

Dr. Connolly said the tobacco industry has been promoting smokeless products as a way to maintain a smoking habit, rather than quitting. “The industry has an excellent opportunity to show the American public that they have changed,” he said. “I hope they don’t miss this opportunity and think it’s business as usual.”

David Howard, a spokesman for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, said the company “felt it was appropriate” to put the new warnings in ads now for magazines with June cover dates. The Reynolds advertising will appear in Car & Driver, Field and Stream and Outdoor Life magazines. It promotes a new type of smokeless product called Camel Snus — available in “Frost” or “Mellow” flavors.

Reynolds is also test marketing a tobacco pellet called Camel Orbs which has drawn fire for its candy-like appearance and flavors.

Smokeless tobacco products are a growing part of industry plans in response to declining cigarette sales, but the products are quickly moving to the center of the debate over how to regulate tobacco. Smokeless advocates say they should be promoted as safer than cigarettes, while some health advocates say that would encourage new users and deflect would-be quitters.

Meanwhile, cigarette packages and advertising are required to have their own bigger, stronger warnings as of June 22, 2011, the second anniversary of the law. Those warnings would have to cover the top half of the front and rear of each package and include “color graphics depicting the negative health consequences of smoking.” The graphics would be modeled on ads in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, showing cancers, lung disease and other damaging effects.

While the United States was the first country to require warnings on cigarettes, in 1964, such warnings are now among the smallest worldwide. Australia is even considering a rule to ban brand colors on cigarette packs altogether and cover almost the entire pack with a picture of disease.

Many tobacco companies filed a free-speech lawsuit last August saying “shocking color graphics” would force them “to stigmatize their own products through their own packaging” and leave no room in display cases to show their desired branding. Consumers, the companies say, already know the harms of tobacco use.

Shares of Lorillard, Inc. (NYSE:LO) ended the trading session lower by $0.7 or -0.88% from its previous close. Lorillard’s price action formed what is considered to be a bearish engulfing candlestick chart pattern.

Lorillard, Inc. (NYSE:LO) manufactures and sells cigarettes. The Company produces cigarettes for both the premium and discount segments of the domestic cigarette market for sale to distributors and retailers in the United States. The company offers 44 different product offerings under the Newport, Kent, True, Maverick, Old Gold, and Max brands. The company is based in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Lorillard’s current stock range is defined by calculated support defined at $72.07 and by the resistance level at $80, which should be used by traders planning their trades.

Traders wanting to establish a position in Lorillard stock need to pay close attention at the bearish engulfing pattern, since it could mark a trend reversal to current Lorillard shares price action. The Bearish engulfing pattern is a leading warning sign, therefore traders should closely monitor price action for indications of a trend reversal.

Just a few miles after passing a towering Marlboro Man ad, a second billboard off the highway promotes cigarettes with a new American face: Kelly Clarkson. The former American Idol winner invites fans to buy tickets to her upcoming concert in Jakarta, the nation’s capital. The logo of her sponsor is splashed in huge type above her head — the popular Indonesian cigarette brand L.A. Lights. Similar ads also run on TV.

Such in-your-face tobacco advertising has been banned for years in the U.S. and many other countries. But in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation, tobacco companies have virtual free rein to peddle their products, from movies to sports sponsorships and television shows. The country remains one of the last holdouts that has not signed the World Health Organization’s tobacco treaty.

As smoking has declined in many Western countries, it has risen in Indonesia — about 63 percent of all men light up and one-third of the overall population smokes, an increase of 26 percent since 1995. Smoking-related illnesses kill at least 200,000 annually in a nation of 235 million.

“Indonesia is a big concern, a big epidemic, a big population, and very little control,” said Dr. Prabhat Jha, a tobacco control expert at the University of Toronto’s Center for Global Health Research. “They have a chaotic taxation and regulatory structure. They have made the mistake of letting the Marlboro Man into the country.”

In recent months, anti-tobacco forces have rallied. A new health law has declared smoking addictive and urged the government to hammer out tobacco regulations. An anti-smoking coalition is pushing for tighter restrictions on smoking in public places, advertising bans and bigger health warnings on cigarette packages.

Public debate also exploded last month after Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic organization, Muhammadiyah, issued a fatwa banning smoking. Though not legally binding, the religious ruling does put pressure on smokers in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Anti-smoking advocates now hope Clarkson will drop the sponsorship of Indonesia’s third-largest tobacco company, Djarum. A growing number of voices have started pleading with the Grammy-winning pop star on her Facebook page.

Two years ago, a tobacco affiliate of U.S.-based Philip Morris International, which dominates Indonesia’s tobacco market, removed its logo from ads promoting an Alicia Keys concert in Jakarta after the singer publicly denounced the sponsorship and apologized to her fans.

“If Kelly Clarkson goes ahead with the concert, she is by choice being a spokesman for the tobacco industry and helping them to market to children,” said Matt Myers, president of the U.S.-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which has urged Clarkson to drop the sponsorship.

“She has the power now to turn this situation around and to send a clear message to Indonesian young people and, frankly, to the young people of the world.”

The Associated Press left messages and e-mailed representatives at Clarkson’s management company, Starstruck Entertainment in Nashville, as well as representatives at her record label, RCA Records in New York. Neither responded to repeated requests for comment.

About a quarter of Indonesian boys aged 13 to 15 are already hooked on cigarettes that sell for about $1 a pack or as little as a few cents apiece, according to WHO. A video on YouTube last month prompted outrage when a 4-year-old Indonesian boy was shown blowing smoke rings and flicking a cigarette. His parents say he’s been smoking up to a pack a day since he was 2.

L.A. Lights company Djarum declined to comment on its sponsorship of the April 29 Clarkson concert, or on accusations that it markets cigarettes to young people. But the company’s international brand manager, Roland Halim, said it abides by government restrictions on tobacco advertising.

Philip Morris affiliate HM Sampoerna said in a statement it has urged the government to adopt tougher regulations on cigarette sales and ads, including age limits on buying tobacco, billboard restrictions and the phasing out of television commercials.

“We recognize that our products, like all tobacco products, cause disease and are addictive,” it said. “Our advertising is intended solely for adult smokers. We sponsor events in compliance with Indonesian law. We do not advertise to minors.”

Smoking is embedded in Indonesia’s culture. Wafts of a pungent mixture of tobacco and cloves, called kreteks, can be smelled in houses rich and poor across the vast archipelago.

According to a 2008 study on tobacco revenue in Indonesia, smokers spend more than 10 percent of their household income on cigarettes; that’s three times more than they spend on education-related expenses such as school fees and books.

Indonesia remains one of the last places in the world where cigarette TV commercials still run, featuring rugged men and beautiful women smoking. Billboards plastered above four-lane highways encourage motorists stuck in Jakarta’s notorious traffic jams to “Go Ahead” or “Become a Man” or let Marlboro Lights “Style Your Party.”

Leggy women in short skirts and strappy heels promote cigarettes at events, sometimes even giving out discounted or free samples to “taste.”

Indonesia’s tobacco industry employs millions in the world’s fifth-largest cigarette-producing market. About 6 percent of the government’s revenue comes from cigarette taxes, and a powerful tobacco lobby has blocked past regulation attempts, including a move to ban TV ads.

Indonesian cigarettes are cheap by regional standards, with taxes less than 40 percent. Tobacco farmers have held massive street protests to denounce any push for higher taxes or tighter restrictions.

“Kretek cigarettes are Indonesia’s heritage just like cigars in Cuba,” ” said Nurtantio Wisnu Brata, chair of the Central Java chapter of the Indonesian Tobacco Farmers Association.

Any move to limit tobacco promotion and use in the country will require strong political will. But critics point out that even Indonesia’s smoke-happy neighbors China and Vietnam have signed the WHO’s tobacco treaty and imposed stronger controls.

“The level of advertising in Indonesia is unmatched anywhere else in Asia,” said Mary Assunta, senior policy adviser for the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance. “The Marlboro Man has ridden into the sunset in many countries, but not in Indonesia.”

Miss Teen Minnesota Jenna O’Rourke took the Capitol rotunda podium today (Wednesday, April 14) and admitted she was fed up.

“I’m tired of being targeted,” said O’Rourke of tobacco industry marketing geared towards young people.

“All tobacco products are poison and highly addictive,” said the Rosemount High School junior and Cancer Society volunteer.

“I want my generation the first generation not addicted to tobacco,” said O’Rourke, heralding a new legislative initiative.

O’Rourke, legislators, and volunteers were lobbing for The Tobacco Modernization and Compliance Act of 2010, legislation supporters argue is needed because of the tobacco industry’s habit of “creeping” around state laws through new product development.

Sold next to real candy

Activists point to tobacco laced-laced sticks, strips and other products that look like breath-fresheners or candy as evidence of youth-oriented tobacco marketing — products that can be sold next to real candy, they say.

Additionally, supporters argue “little cigars” are actually cigarettes and legally should be considered such — subject to the laws regulating cigarette sales and taxation.

The bill would also prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to youths. These are battery-powered products that deliver puffs of nicotine vapor to the user.

“Keeping up with the tobacco industry is a 24/7 challenge. And that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, Senate bill author.

The candy-like products the tobacco industry is marketing should be “alarming,” he said.

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, Senate health committee chairman, was upbeat about the chances of the legisaltion becoming law.

“We’re going to pass it this year,” he said.

The legislation is expected to receive a hearing tomorrow in the Senate tax committee.

O’Rourke argued that tobacco products have one unique characteristic.

“They are the only product intended to kill the consumer,” she said.